Software AG GB 2012, englisch

SOFTWARE AG | ANNUAL REPORT 2012 78 SECTOR TREND The slow global economy was felt in the IT market, which grew just 3 percent to $3.6 trillion worldwide last year in contrast to 7.9-percent growth the year before, according to Gartner market researchers. Gartner also estimates that the enterprise software market segment increased by just 3.3 percent (2011: 9.8 percent) to $278 billion and the IT services market segment by just 1.8 percent (2011: 7.7 per- cent) to $881 billion. Gartner calculates that IT spending in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) last year totaled $1.138 trillion, which is a 3.6-percent decline. There was an even larger drop (-5.9 percent) in spending in western Europe. The European Information Technology Observatory (EITO) confirms this from a fundamental point of view although the two research institutes employ different ways of segmenting the markets. According to EITO, emerging economies are actually propel- ling industry growth. Even today they account for more than a quarter of global demand for information and communica- tions technology (ICT). And this percentage is rising. In 2012 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OVERALL ECONOMIC SITUATION The global economy continued to lose momentum in 2012. Following moderate growth of 3.8 percent in 2011, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) expects just 3.2 per- cent in global economic expansion. Industrialized countries in particular stalled growth. But developing and emerging economies, which in past years had differentiated them- selves from the rest of the world by their robust economic growth, also slowed significantly. Southern European countries caused a downward trend in the entire eurozone. In order to contain the ongoing national debt crisis, European governments established the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) whose objective is to ensure the solvency of eurozone member countries. The German econ- omy was able to decouple itself from the negative trend dominating the eurozone in 2012. Here growth is expected to be 0.7 percent. This is due to strong exports and the low unemployment rate, among other factors